Far from being on its way out, the 'Tonic Solfa' system was adapted by Zoltan Kodaly, and given hand signals to aid young children to remember it.

The Kodaly Method (which I used myself during the '70's and early '80's before I left mainstream teaching) was a 'conversational' method, which helped children to develop 'perfect pitch' if used properly.

It's too involved to go into here (there must be a website!), but it started with the teacher singing 'so - mi' with the hand signals ('so' is the hand flat and vertical, with fingers together pointing towards the children, thumb uppermost, and 'mi' is the hand horizontal), and the children would be encouraged to reply. In a similar way, rhythms would be 'discussed', but not separated from pitch.

Like I said, too complex to go into here!

I found it very successful - anyone else use(d) it?